Understanding Of Biotechnology Research Articles

Implementation of Biotechnology Applied to Medicine Course Using Virtual Laboratories: Perceptions and Attitudes of Students

The rapid evolution of biotechnology across various sectors, including agriculture, industry, and medicine, has profoundly transformed our comprehension of the world. Virtual laboratories (VLs) provide an immersive learning experience that can enhance future generations’ understanding of biotechnology’s medical applications. This study investigated the impact of incorporating VLs into a short course on biotechnology applied to medicine on the attitudes and perceptions of third-year medical students (n = 210). A validated questionnaire was employed to assess their perspectives, attitudes, and experience with virtual laboratory platforms before and after the course. The findings revealed a significant positive change in 7/38 questionnaire items (p < 0.05), indicating that the VL experience modified perceptions about biotechnology. This study emphasizes the importance of exploring innovative teaching methods for biotechnology and highlights the advantages of VL in educating future physicians. The primary concerns of the students were the misuse of personal genetic information and biotechnological applications involving animal modification. Overall, the students had a favorable experience using the virtual laboratory platforms. These findings collectively suggest that VL can positively influence perceptions and attitudes toward biotechnology among healthcare professionals.

Knowledge of, and Attitudes Towards Health-related Biotechnology Applications Amongst Australian Year 10 High School Students

Modern biotechnology has a large and rapidly increasing impact on society. New advances in genetics, stem cells and other areas hold great potential for human health but also presenting socioscientific issues that commonly divide public opinion. While knowledge is necessary to develop informed opinions about biotechnology, they may also be influenced by polarized discourse and fiction in the media. Here, we examined prior knowledge about and attitudes towards health-related biotechnological applications in Year 10 high school students from Western Australia using online questionnaires. The impact of teaching on students’ understanding was tested by repeating the questionnaire after a lesson. Finally, students’ argumentation skills were examined by recording responses to statements about biotechnological applications. We found that, prior to instruction, most students exhibited a reasonable understanding of biotechnology. There was little evidence for alternative conceptions, and instruction led to a diversification in understanding. Attitudes towards biotechnology were generally positive but varied. Despite interest in biotechnological issues, argument for positions was generally cognitive-affective in nature. Consequently, biotechnology is a relevant topic for science education, and presents excellent opportunities to build on pre-existing knowledge. Rather than expanding students’ knowledge, our results suggest educators should focus on deepening existing understanding and strengthening argumentation skills.

Power, progress and prevarication

Genetically engineered (GE) papaya was developed in the 1990s to improve the livelihoods of small scale farmers in Thailand. Yet these farmers have been excluded from the discourse around its deregulation and deployment. While elite stakeholders continue to debate in Bangkok, little is known about small scale farmers’ understanding of biotechnology, their perceptions of the technology and whether or not they are likely to be adopters if it became available. In this case study, I report on farmer knowledge of agricultural biotechnology and genetically engineered papaya in northeast Thailand. Forty farmers in four villages were surveyed with regard to their knowledge and perceptions of GE papaya. A qualitative grounded theory approach was employed to understand their responses, from which three themes emerged: progress, power and prevarication. From these themes, the decision-making process of farmers seems to be dominated by their existing local knowledge and their interest in progressing their economic status. The responses of small-scale Isaan farmers provide a new perspective on the debate over GE virus-resistant papaya in Thailand. Based on the results of this study, we can conclude that this small subset of Thai papaya growers perceive GE virus-resistant papaya as a compatible innovation that is likely to be adopted by Thai farmers if it becomes available.

Multidimensional analysis of high-school students' perceptions about biotechnology

Concerns about public understanding of biotechnology have motivated educational initiatives to improve students' competency to make scientifically sustained decisions regarding controversial issues. Understanding students' perceptions about biotechnology is essential to determine the effectiveness of these programmes. To assess how students' perceptions are modulated, this study evaluates education and gender effects on knowledge, attitudes, interest, and importance given to biotechnology. Following a quantitative assessment approach, a questionnaire was administered to 698 high-school students engaged in three curricular formats: science students attending biology (n = 225); non-biology science students (n = 210); and non-science students (n = 263). The outcomes of this study suggest that education is more determining than gender in shaping students' perceptions and behavioural intentions, which are modulated by cognitive, affective and motivational elements. Students, particularly from non-science courses, revealed knowledge and interest limitations, but acknowledged the importance of biotechnology. Most students demonstrated positive attitudes towards different applications, except when animal manipulation was involved. Positive correlations between knowledge, attitudes, interest and importance attributed to biotechnology were identified. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Elementary education preservice teachers' understanding of biotechnology and its related processes

This study examined preservice teachers' understanding of biotechnology and its related processes. A sample comprised 88 elementary education preservice teachers at a large university in the Midwest of the USA. A total of 60 and 28 of the participants were enrolled in introductory and advanced science methods courses, respectively. Most participants had taken two integrated science courses at the college level. Data were collected using a questionnaire, which had open-ended items and which required participants to write the definitions and examples of the following terms: biotechnology, genetic engineering, cloning and genetically modified foods. The results indicate that preservice teachers had limited understanding of biotechnology and its related processes. The majority of the preservice teachers provided poor definitions, explanations, and examples of biotechnology, genetic engineering and genetically modified foods. Surprisingly, however, a moderate number of preservice teachers correctly defined cloning and provided correct examples of cloning. Implications for science teacher education, science curriculum, as well as recommendations for further research are discussed.

Infusing Authentic Inquiry into Biotechnology

Societal benefit depends on the general public’s understandings of biotechnology (Betsch in World J Microbiol Biotechnol 12:439–443, 1996; Dawson and Cowan in Int J Sci Educ 25(1):57–69, 2003; Schiller in Business Review: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (Fourth Quarter), 2002; Smith and Emmeluth in Am Biol Teach 64(2):93–99, 2002). A National Science Foundation funded survey of high school biology teachers reported that hands-on biotechnology education exists in advanced high school biology in the United States, but is non-existent in mainstream biology coursework (Micklos et al. in Biotechnology labs in American high schools, 1998). The majority of pre-service teacher content preparation courses do not teach students appropriate content knowledge through the process of inquiry. A broad continuum exists when discussing inquiry-oriented student investigations (Hanegan et al. in School Sci Math J 109(2):110–134, 2009). Depending on the amount of structure in teacher lessons, inquiries can often be categorized as guided or open. The lesson can be further categorized as simple or authentic (Chinn and Malhotra in Sci Educ 86(2):175–218, 2002). Although authentic inquiries provide the best opportunities for cognitive development and scientific reasoning, guided and simple inquiries are more often employed in the classroom (Crawford in J Res Sci Teach 37(9):916–937, 2000; NRC in Inquiry and the national science education standards: a guide for teaching and learning, 2000). For the purposes of this study we defined inquiry as “authentic” if original research problems were resolved (Hanegan et al. in School Sci Math J 109(2):110–134, 2009; Chinn and Malhotra in Sci Educ 86(2):175–218, 2002; Roth in Authentic school science: knowing and learning in open-inquiry science laboratories, 1995). The research question to guide this study through naturalistic inquiry research methods was: How will participants express whether or not an authentic inquiry experience enhanced their understanding of biotechnology? As respondents explored numerous ideas in order to develop a workable research question, struggled to create a viable protocol, executed their experiment, and then evaluated their results, they commented on unexpected topics regarding the nature of science as well as specific content knowledge relating to their experiments. Four out of five participants reported they learned the most during authentic inquiry laboratory experience.

Bringing scientists to the people – the Co‐Extra website

Disseminating and facilitating access to science-based information is a necessity to enable the public to make informed decisions about appropriate uses of biotechnology products. It is also one of the major objectives of Co-Extra, a European-funded project addressing co-existence of genetically modified organisms and non-genetically modified organisms in Europe and their traceability. To this end, a dynamic and interactive website has been developed as the core element of the Co-Extra external communication strategy. This website has been designed to make it attractive and accessible to a large audience in a very simple and practical manner, building on practical experiences gained in the development of other websites related to biotechnology and genetically modified organisms. The website delivers popularized information for the general public as well as scientific data meant primarily for the more expert readers. It also provides for various permanent tools allowing multidirectional interaction with its visitors. Content is displayed using a web-based platform, based on a sophisticated Content Management System. First results indicate a high level of interest from the general public and from experts, showing that the content of this website can contribute by communicating science-based information to improve awareness and understanding of biotechnology.

(313) Utilizing Distance Education to Teach Emerging Topics in Horticulture Science: A Report on Four Years of Teaching Introduction to Agricultural Biotechnology

Advances in biotechnology are rapidly changing the way we work and live, but are often met with controversy or raise ethical questions. Approaches that enhance learning and awareness of biotechnology are essential to increasing citizen understanding of these topics. Educators, both formal and informal, need skills to understand the science associated with these technologies, as they may not have been previously exposed to the topics in their training, especially with the rapidly changing science. To address the need for unbiased agricultural biotechnology information, a graduate level internet-based course was developed entitled: “Introduction to Agricultural Biotechnology”. This course focuses on agricultural biotechnologies related to horticulture and plant science. Online courses are especially useful for students not able to travel due to various constraints, such as working full-time or being physically distant from campus. The goal is a population better able to understand the science behind rapidly advancing biotechnologies and that is better equipped to make informed decisions regarding those technologies. Course assignments are designed to help students as they teach others about topics associated with biotechnology in both formal and informal settings, such as a high school class or an Extension seminar. In the past 5 years, 54 students (teachers, college instructors, or Extension staff) from across the United States have taken the course. Course ratings have been consistently very good (avg. 4.45) on a 1–5 scale (1 = very poor, 5 = excellent). Former students have indicated that they have a better understanding of biotechnology and would be better able to relate it to others. Students also gained an improved awareness of the resources that are available for teaching agricultural biotechnology.

MODERNIZING THE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM: AN ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES, KNOWLEDGE, AND UNDERSTANDING OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

In 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act encouraged the development of an agricultural education curriculum that spread innovative farming techniques throughout the nation. During the last half of the 20th century, however, many programs failed to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies. In a major study funded by the National Academy of Sciences (National Research Council, Board on Agriculture, Committee on Agricultural Education in Secondary Schools, 1988), much of the focus and content of many vocational agriculture programs was found to be outdated. The authors challenged the profession to broaden the relevance and scope of the agricultural education curriculum to better prepare students for the study of agriculture. One response to this challenge was to infuse more science and technology into the agricultural education curriculum. The purpose of this descriptive research study was to provide information on the attitudes and knowledge of biotechnology by agricultural education teachers in West Virginia. A major finding of the study was the agricultural education teachers possessed a positive attitude towards biotechnology, but lacked the resources and knowledge to incorporate the subject matter into their curriculum. Teachers perceive themselves with more knowledge on biotechnology topics traditionally associated with agriculture (animal reproduction, hybridization) and less knowledge on topics associated with other fields (environmental biotechnology, human genomics).

Gene literacy education in Japan-Fostering public understanding through practice of hands-on laboratory activities in high schools

Public understanding (PU) of biotechnology and life science is indispensable for developing bio-industry and life science itself. To promote PU, scientific literacy education, especially gene literacy education, should be introduced to the general public. An effective conduit for reaching a broad sector of society is high schools into which more than 95% of young people in Japan enter currently. Gene involving laboratory activity is effective for obtaining literate students, because practical hands-on activities engage student's attention and deepen their understanding of biotechnology. The text Recombinant DNA laboratory practice for secondary education has enabled students to perform transformation experiments with safe host-vector systems in their classroom. Workshops for secondary school teachers have been held in a lot of universities since 2001, and currently gene literacy involving laboratory activity is available in many high schools and public facilities including museums. To be most successful, we found that gene literacy requires the collaborative efforts of teachers and scientists, and inter-school or intra-school cooperation status. In the present review, we summarize the current of gene literacy in Japan.

What do individuals in different science groups within a life sciences organization think about genetic modification?

An assessment was undertaken of the attitudes of individuals within the science community towards a program to produce genetically modified cattle for altered milk composition, expectantly allowing for research into the treatment of multiple sclerosis in humans. The majority of respondents to an electronic survey expressed favorable attitudes to the program, thought it beneficial, respected individual freedom and was fair and just and disagreed that it was harmful. A passion for science and having a suitable lifestyle were the most important motivating factors for individuals. Finally, there were a wide range of responses to a number of cultural beliefs or myths. Science grouping significantly affected the responses. Compared with Systems and Land groups, Plant and Reproduction groups more strongly agreed with the project, thought it less harmful to interest groups, felt that genetic modification of animals was more morally acceptable, and more strongly agreed with the myth statements. These results indicate a diversity of beliefs and attitudes towards genetic modification amongst those within the science community, and highlight the importance of understanding ethics and myths in dealing with them. It is suggested that the diversity of beliefs could be better used to help shape public policy and understanding of biotechnology.

INTRODUCTION: THE INDUSTRIAL DYNAMICS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY: NEW INSIGHTS AND NEW AGENDAS

This paper introduces the innovative articles contained in the third special issue ofIndustry and Innovation emanating from conferences organized by DRUID (DanishResearch Unit for Industrial Dynamics). Given the potential of biotechnology toemerge as the next general purpose technology, and the diverse industrial forms andknowledge transfers biotechnology implies, this collection provides a timely andcompelling addition to our understanding of biotechnology. Each paper offers aunique and pioneering perspective on the industrial dynamics of biotechnology andlikely paths for future development.

Western Australian school students' understanding of biotechnology

Are science educators providing secondary school students with the background to understand the science behind recent controversies such as the recently introduced compulsory labelling of genetically modified foods? Research from the UK suggests that many secondary school students do not understand the processes or implications of modern biotechnology. The situation in Australia is unclear. In this study, 1116 15-year-old students from eleven Western Australian schools were surveyed to determine their understanding of, and attitude towards, recent advances in modern biotechnology. The results indicate that approximately one third of students have little or no understanding of biotechnology. Many students over-estimate the use of biotechnology in our society by confusing current uses with possible future applications. The results provide a rationale for the inclusion of biotechnology, a cutting edge science, in the school science curriculum

A study of pupils' conceptions and reasoning in connection with 'microbes', as a contribution to research in biotechnology education

Biotechnology uses genetically modified bacteria or viruses. Students' conceptions about 'microbes' tends to condition their understanding of biotechnology. This study focuses on the reasoning behind their conceptions. It is assumed that students' conceptions are themselves conditioned by the status given to diseases, by a hygiene-oriented culture, by layman's and school knowledge, personal experiences, socio-cultural mediation and linguistic confusions. It is essential to take all these factors into consideration in any project involving biotechnology education.

Influence of Industrial communications on public perceptions of biotechnology

The biotech industry spends significant time and funds in confronting negative public perceptions concerning acceptance of various biotechnology‐derived products prior to their commercialization. It is generally assumed that greater public awareness of a technology increases the public's comfort level, so industrial communications would be expected to lead to public acceptance of the technology. However, this study finds that throughout the world, increased public awareness and understanding of biotechnology are correlated not only with a greater appreciation of its benefits but also with increased worries about the technology. In the United States, even though the public perceives there are significant risks associated with biotechnology, public acceptance of the technology is relatively high. This may be due to the early rapid growth of the biotech industry in the United States. The U.S. biotech industry initially played a major role in addressing societal issues associated with commercialization of biotechnology. A continuing, proactive stance on the part of the U.S. biotech industry to discuss the issues may be related to public acceptance of the technology and the disproportionate growth of the industry in the United States.

Biotechnology education in Europe

This study was not intended as a catalogue, but as a comparative overview of the range of opportunities for education in biotechnology open to citizens in the various member states of the EU – opportunities organised by governments and their agencies, by educational establishments, by a wide variety of organisations and institutions variously interested in informing/influencing public attitudes and, of course, by the media in its many forms. Switzerland was included because of its experience of a referendum on genetics and biotechnology as well as the USA, where it all started. A number of suggestions are made for improving public understanding of biotechnology and for establishing a code of best practice taking into account the cultural differences between countries. Perhaps the most important is that biotechnology education is a long-term issue requiring a long-term view; it should not be constrained by short-term funding.